ASCILITE NEWS

Reminder: 2015 Community Mentoring Program Applications

The ascilite Community Mentoring Program (CMP) aims to provide mentoring opportunities across a number of fields including technical, academic development, learning development, faculty academics, early career researchers, graphic designers and programmers.

The CMP develops professional mentoring relationships between learners (mentees) and experienced practitioners (mentors). Whilst the new learners may be experienced in some areas of educational technologies, the ascilite CMP is a vehicle for enhancement of specific knowledge, skills or capacities in an area of developing expertise.

Synopsis of 2014 Community Mentoring Program

In 2014, the ascilite CMP saw a total of 19 ascilite members participate in the program with 10 mentees and 9 mentors. Groups from Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Qatar participated.

Mentor and mentee groups sought collaboration across a range of areas such as building professional relationships, developing tools, evaluating e-learning research module, learning to write publications and grants,developing teaching skills, gaining ability to identify data from research, writing for publications, writing collaboratively and forming research groups.

Three random examples of the 8 mentoring projects undertaken in 2014 include:

Writing academic articles to gain a better understanding of funding schemes. The group met online regularly and two geographically close members met face-to-face regularly to collaborate on writing. Mentors shared advice about writing journal articles and grant proposals, i.e. how, where to find out about and selecting sources. The group collaborated on two ascilite papers. (Collaborative Mentoring Group with Helen Farley; University of Southern Queensland and Sue Gregory; University of New England as mentors and Naomi Mcgrath; University of New England, Pauline Roberts; Murdoch University and Shannon Johnston; University of Western Australia as mentees).

The role of instant feedback in improving student understanding of basic accounting concepts. The project involved implementing the intervention and analysing results along with developing a number of drafts of the paper with feedback from the mentor. As a result, the paper accepted and presented at the ascilite conference. (Philip Uys; Charles Sturt University as mentor and Brent Gregory, University of New England as mentee).

Develop tools to evaluate the impact of research methods and develop an eModule. Another project aim was to implement measurement tools in order to conduct an evaluation of initial rollout of eModule; focussing on impact of eModule on student learning about research methods. A third aim was to professionally assist the mentee in relation to the scholarship of teaching and learning using ICT. (Gary Williams, Stenden University Qatar as mentor and Yanika Kowitlawakul; National University of Singapore as mentee).

2015 Deadline for Applications

The deadline for applications in the 2015 Community Mentoring Program is drawing close at 20 February 2015.

Further Information

For those interested in the CMP, a video recording (40 min) of a CMP webinar is available that provides an overview of the program as presented by Sue Gregory on 5 February 2015 and full details on the program along with application forms are available on the ascilite website.

Call for Expressions of Interest for Appointment as an Associate Editor of AJET

We are calling for expressions of interest from people interested in taking on an associate editor role with AJET. Associate editors take carriage of manuscripts assigned to them after initial screening by a lead editor. They then assign the articles to suitable reviewers, manage and determine the outcome of the review process, and liaise with authors about the formatting of their manuscript prior to passing the manuscript to a copy and layout editor. Further detail about the role can be provided upon request.

We will consider applicants who:

Are experienced educational technology researchers in post-school contexts with a well-established track record of journal publications in educational technology;

Have an strong track record of reviewing articles for educational technology journals and conferences:

Have excellent English language written communication skills;

Have demonstrated successful publication in high quality journals;

Have experience in collaborative work across geographical boundaries; and

Have the time and commitment to dedicate to the role of an associate editor.

Applications of a maximum of 8 pages, including a maximum of 2 pages addressing the above selection criteria along with a CV of a maximum of 6 pages should be emailed to Sue Bennett by Monday 9 March 2015. Further information may also be obtained from Sue.

OTHER NEWS

E-Learning in the workplace: An annotated bibliography

The New Zealand Ministry of Education has published a report giving an overview of the literature relating to e-learning in workplaces in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. While the report does not cover provider-based efforts, it does include workplaces in these countries.

The report was compiled by Peter Guiney, Analyst in the Tertiary Systems Performance and Analysis branch of the Ministry. You will find a link to the report here.

Purpose

Increasingly, educational content and activities are being designed for, delivered and consumed via mobile technology devices. Educational uses of e-books, digital videos, podcasts, social networking, cloud computing, and many other mobile applications have been adopted by pockets of innovative educators and institutions around the world. To scale up these innovative practices mediated by mobile technologies, there is a need to harness research studies with a solid theoretical underpinning or framework, and empirically validated practical recommendations to inform practices and policies.

This special issue is an attempt to narrow this gap in the literature and to inform about contemporary developments and issues surrounding theories and applications of mobile technologies in education at all levels. In particular, attention is given to emerging learning design models, design theories and exemplary cases of adoption of mobile technologies.

The papers for this special issue will be from two sources:

The first source will include papers directly submitted to the editorial office for inclusion in the special issue on Mobile Learning.

All accepted manuscripts are expected to make a significant contribution and present a rigorous evaluation of the idea they present, e.g. a comprehensive user study should accompany any new interface proposal.

Guest Editors

Daniel Churchhill, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong.

Submissions

For manuscript preparation, please visit the website here. Add a comment in the email to the Editor-in-Chief that the submission is intended for the special issue on Mobile Learning. All papers will be reviewed by at least two external reviewers and one of the guest editors.

The submission deadline is 15 April 2015.

Job Vacancy: Lecturer in E-learning, Centre for Academic Development, Victoria University of Wellington

The Lecturer in E-Learning contributes to the development and implementation of the University’s plans for digitally-enabled learning and teaching. The lecturer in E-learning works as part of the CAD team, promoting the use of technology and supporting academics, teaching staff and others with the use of technology to promote learning. This role also works in collaboration with other staff in the university who provide support with teaching technology (e.g., ITS Learning and Research Technology Group). The Lecturer in E-Learning also contributes to University policy and practice in the development and provision of educational technology and conducts/collaborates on research into the effective and efficient applications and uses of educational technologies.

Further information can be obtained from Associate Professor Liz Jones, Director of The Centre for Academic Development, email Liz or phone +64 4 463 9696.

The School of Education has one domestic PhD scholarship available in association with an ARC Discovery Project ‘University learning in the digital age: Investigating how students learn online’. The project is led by Professor Sue Bennett (UOW), in collaboration with Professor Lori Lockyer (Macquarie), Professor Gregor Kennedy (Melbourne) and Professor Barney Dalgarno (Charles Sturt University).

This project investigates how university students interpret and manage online tasks and the impact on their learning outcomes. Understanding the interconnections between teachers’ designs and students’ approaches, and the impact of contextual factors is critical to understanding both why students adopt sub-optimal approaches. The findings will inform practical strategies for enhancing student approaches to learning through improved self-regulation that can be applied and tested in future research. The successful applicant will work with his/her supervisors to identify an appropriate research study within this broader project.

Eligibility

These scholarships are for study in Australia for those who have achieved a Bachelors degree with First Class Honours or equivalent results in Education or Educational Psychology, preferably with experience and/or an interest in higher education. This scholarship is available to Australian Citizens, New Zealand citizens or Australian Permanent Residents only.

All applicants will be equally considered and evaluated based on their educational background, research and/or working experience.

To apply for this scholarship, please email your latest CV with a cover letter to Professor Sue Bennett. Applications will be processed as they are received and will remain open until the position is filled.

ALT New Articles of Interest

The following articles have recently been published in ALT's Online Newsletter:

I was involved in a lovely conversation about Open Educational Resources (OER) as part of an ALT OERSIG webinar held on Thursday 29th January. The webinar was led by Paul Richardson and involved Terry McAndrew. The webinar sparked a discussion about how open education needs to move forward and I get the sense that many people at this moment in time think open education is at a pivotal point. The term ‘open educational resource’ was coined over a decade ago, and maybe it has hit the terrible teens? I see comments on social media about how individuals and institutions haven’t changed. I happen to disagree, and I think the teenager is just languishing in its bedroom having an almighty sulk, and is about to emerge with a second wave of new found confidence very soon. Read more >>>

In reality, blended learning has been in existence for decades but as a term in common usage in education and recognised as a legitimate approach, it has become fashionable only during the 21st Century. Essentially, mixing and matching a range of approaches and media to learning and teaching intentions is at the heart of blended learning though, within UK Higher Education, the term has often been used to describe the percentage of time divided between face to face (f2f) and online learning. Read more >>>